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Book Hunting  Fishing and Animal Husbandry at the Farm Beneath the Sand  Western Greenland

Download or read book Hunting Fishing and Animal Husbandry at the Farm Beneath the Sand Western Greenland written by Inge Bødker Enghoff and published by Museum Tusculanum Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Climate Change and Human Responses

Download or read book Climate Change and Human Responses written by Gregory Monks and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contributes to the current discussion on climate change by presenting selected studies on the ways in which past human groups responded to climatic and environmental change. In particular, the chapters show how these responses are seen in the animal remains that people left behind in their occupation sites. Many of these bones represent food remains, so the environments in which these animals lived can be identified and human use of those environments can be understood. In the case of climatic change resulting in environmental change, these animal remains can indicate that a change has occurred, in climate, environment and human adaptation, and can also indicate the specific details of those changes.

Book The Far Traveler

    Book Details:
  • Author : Nancy Marie Brown
  • Publisher : HMH
  • Release : 2008-10-06
  • ISBN : 0547539398
  • Pages : 325 pages

Download or read book The Far Traveler written by Nancy Marie Brown and published by HMH. This book was released on 2008-10-06 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable story of Gudrid, the female explorer who sailed from Iceland to the New World a millennium ago. Five hundred years before Columbus, a Viking woman named Gudrid sailed off the edge of the known world. She landed in the New World and lived there for three years, giving birth to a baby before sailing home. Or so the Icelandic sagas say. Even after archaeologists found a Viking longhouse in Newfoundland, no one believed that the details of Gudrid’s story were true. Then, in 2001, a team of scientists discovered what may have been this pioneering woman’s last house, buried under a hay field in Iceland, just where the epic tales suggest it could be. Joining scientists experimenting with cutting-edge technology and the latest archaeological techniques, and tracing Gudrid’s steps on land and in the sagas, The Far Traveler reconstructs a life that spanned—and expanded—the bounds of the then-known world. It also sheds new light on the society that gave rise to a woman even more extraordinary than legend has painted her, and illuminates the reasons for its collapse.

Book Monstrous Fishes and the Mead Dark Sea

Download or read book Monstrous Fishes and the Mead Dark Sea written by Vicki E. Szabo and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-01-31 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on historical, legal, literary, ethnographic and archaeological evidence, this book offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the use, acquisition and perception of whales in the medieval Norse North Atlantic world.

Book Beyond the Catch

    Book Details:
  • Author : Louis Sicking
  • Publisher : BRILL
  • Release : 2009
  • ISBN : 9004169733
  • Pages : 443 pages

Download or read book Beyond the Catch written by Louis Sicking and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on archaeological and written sources, this collection of essays presents fascinating new interpretations in the history of the fisheries by highlighting the consequences of the northern fisheries through interdisciplinary approaches to various themes, including the environment, economy, politics, and society in the medieval and early modern periods.

Book The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology written by Umberto Albarella and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-23 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animals have played a fundamental role in shaping human history, and the study of their remains from archaeological sites - zooarchaeology - has gradually been emerging as a powerful discipline and crucible for forging an understanding of our past. The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology offers a cutting-edge compendium of zooarchaeology the world over that transcends environmental, economic, and social approaches, seeking instead to provide a holistic view of the roles played by animals in past human cultures. Incisive chapters written by leading scholars in the field incorporate case studies from across five continents, from Iceland to New Zealand and from Japan to Egypt and Ecuador, providing a sense of the dynamism of the discipline, the many approaches and methods adopted by different schools and traditions, and an idea of the huge range of interactions that have occurred between people and animals throughout the world and its history. Adaptations of human-animal relationships in environments as varied as the Arctic, temperate forests, deserts, the tropics, and the sea are discussed, while studies of hunter-gatherers, farmers, herders, fishermen, and even traders and urban dwellers highlight the importance that animals have had in all forms of human societies. With an introduction that clearly contextualizes the current practice of zooarchaeology in relation to both its history and the challenges and opportunities that can be expected for the future, and a methodological glossary illuminating the way in which zooarchaeologists approach the study of their material, this Handbook will be invaluable not only for specialists in the field, but for anybody who has an interest in our past and the role that animals have played in forging it.

Book Norse Greenland  Viking Peasants in the Arctic

Download or read book Norse Greenland Viking Peasants in the Arctic written by Arnved Nedkvitne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-27 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How could a community of 2000–3000 Viking peasants survive in Arctic Greenland for 430 years (ca. 985–1415), and why did they finally disappear? European agriculture in an Arctic environment encountered serious ecological challenges. The Norse peasants faced these challenges by adapting agricultural practices they had learned from the Atlantic and North Sea coast of Norway. Norse Greenland was the stepping stone for the Europeans who first discovered America and settled briefly in Newfoundland ca. AD 1000. The community had a global significance which surpassed its modest size. In the last decades scholars have been nearly unanimous in emphasising that long-term climatic and environmental changes created a situation where Norse agriculture was no longer sustainable and the community was ruined. A secondary hypothesis has focused on ethnic confrontations between Norse peasants and Inuit hunters. In the last decades ethnic violence has been on the rise in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa. In some cases it has degenerated into ethnic cleansing. This has strengthened the interest in ethnic violence in past societies. Challenging traditional hypotheses is a source of progress in all science. The present book does this on the basis of relevant written and archaeological material respecting the methodology of both sciences.

Book Human Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic

Download or read book Human Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic written by Ramona Harrison and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2014-10-08 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Human Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic: A Collaborative Model of Humans and Nature through Space and Time, Ramona Harrison and Ruth A. Maherhave compiled a series of separate research projects conducted across the North Atlantic region that each contribute greatly to anthropological archaeology. This book assembles a regional model through which the reader is presented with a vivid and detailed image of the climatic events and cultures which have occupied these seas and lands for roughly a 5000-year period. It provides a model of adaptability, resilience, and sustainability that can be applied globally. First, visiting the Northern Isles of Scotland in the Orkney Islands, the reader is taken through the archaeology from the Neolithic Period through World War II in the face of sea-level rise and rapidly eroding coastlines. The Shetland Islands then reveal a deep-time study of one large-scale Iron Age excavation. On to the northern coasts of Norway, where information about late medieval maritime peoples is explained. Iceland explores human–environment interaction and implications of climate change presented from the Viking Age through the Early Modern Era. Rounding out the North Atlantic Region is Greenland, which sheds light on the Norse in the late Viking Age and the Middle Ages.

Book Seeking a Richer Harvest

Download or read book Seeking a Richer Harvest written by Tina Thurston and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-11-25 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Subsistence intensification, innovation and change have long figured prominently in explanations for the development of social complexity among foragers and horticulturalists. This set of global case studies re-examines the ‘subsistence question’ in light of recent research. It contrasts traditional approaches with recent archaeological research that presents human driven strategies for power, prestige, and status as causes of subsistence intensification.

Book Human Impacts on Ancient Marine Ecosystems

Download or read book Human Impacts on Ancient Marine Ecosystems written by Torben C. Rick and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-04-29 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeological data now show that relatively intense human adaptations to coastal environments developed much earlier than once believed—more than 125,000 years ago. With our oceans and marine fisheries currently in a state of crisis, coastal archaeological sites contain a wealth of data that can shed light on the history of human exploitation of marine ecosystems. In eleven case studies from the Americas, Pacific Islands, North Sea, Caribbean, Europe, and Africa, leading researchers working in coastal areas around the world cover diverse marine ecosystems, reaching into deep history to discover how humans interacted with and impacted these aquatic environments and shedding new light on our understanding of contemporary environmental problems.

Book Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West

Download or read book Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West written by Jamie Kreiner and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of life in the early medieval West, using pigs as a lens to investigate agriculture, ecology, economy, and philosophy In the early medieval West, from North Africa to the British Isles, pigs were a crucial part of agriculture and culture. In this fascinating book, Jamie Kreiner examines how this ubiquitous species was integrated into early medieval ecologies and transformed the way that people thought about the world around them. In this world, even the smallest things could have far-reaching consequences. Kreiner tracks the interlocking relationships between pigs and humans by drawing on textual and visual evidence, bioarchaeology and settlement archaeology, and mammal biology. She shows how early medieval communities bent their own lives in order to accommodate these tricky animals--and how in the process they reconfigured their agrarian regimes, their fiscal policies, and their very identities. In the end, even the pig's own identity was transformed: at the close of the early Middle Ages, it had become a riveting metaphor for Christianity itself.

Book The Atlantic Walrus

    Book Details:
  • Author : Xénia Keighley
  • Publisher : Academic Press
  • Release : 2021-06-17
  • ISBN : 0128174315
  • Pages : 359 pages

Download or read book The Atlantic Walrus written by Xénia Keighley and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2021-06-17 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Atlantic Walrus: Multidisciplinary insights into human-animal interactions addresses the key dimensions of long-term human walrus interactions across the Atlantic Arctic and subarctic regions, over the past millennia. This book brings together research from across the social and natural sciences to explore walrus biology, human culture, environmental conditions and their reciprocal effects. Together, 13 chapters of this book reconstruct the early evolution of walruses, walrus biology, the cultural significance and ecological impact of prehistoric and indigenous hunting practices, as well as the effects of commercial hunting and international trade. This book also examines historic and ongoing management strategies and, the importance of new research methodologies in revealing hitherto unknown details of the past, and concludes by discussing the future for Atlantic walruses in the face of climate change and increased human activities in the Arctic. This volume is an ideal resource for those who are seeking to understand an iconic Arctic species and its long and complex relationship with humans. This includes individuals and researchers with a personal or professional connection to walruses or the Arctic, as well as marine biologists, zoologists, conservationists, paleontologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, indigenous communities, natural resource managers and government agencies. Provides succinct overviews of the biology of the Atlantic Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) as well as human cultures within the North Atlantic Arctic and the surrounding region by consolidating research which until now has been scattered across fields and academic publications Editorial team of inter-disciplinary researchers ensuring the breadth, depth and integration of material covered throughout the volume Thirteen chapters, each authored by leading international researchers and experts on the Atlantic Walrus Considers the inter-relatedness and complexity of species biology, ecological change, human culture, and anthropogenic pressures onto the Atlantic Walrus, all while remaining accessible to readers from different disciplines or a more generalist audience Draws upon the latest methods in marine mammal and archaeological research Assesses historical management of the species, while also considering current and future conservation efforts in light of human activities and climate change Text supported by striking and insightful new maps and scientific illustrations, ideal for teaching and outreach

Book Adapting to Climate Change

Download or read book Adapting to Climate Change written by W. Neil Adger and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-25 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the latest science and social science research on whether the world can adapt to climate change.

Book The Give and Take of Sustainability

Download or read book The Give and Take of Sustainability written by Michelle Hegmon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, ethnographical and archaeological perspectives on tradeoffs help the reader to think about hard choices, and how to make better decisions today and tomorrow.

Book Nipisat   a Saqqaq Culture Site in Sisimiut  Central West Greenland

Download or read book Nipisat a Saqqaq Culture Site in Sisimiut Central West Greenland written by Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen and published by Museum Tusculanum Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1989 to 1994, more than 200 m2 were excavated at the Saqqaq site of Nipisat, situated on a small island 15 km south of Sisimiut. The excellent preservation conditions for organic material, and the fact that some of the stone artefacts were not previously known from the Saqqaq Culture, were the main reasons for the excavation. More than 70,000 bone fragments, 20,000 flakes and 1,000 artefacts were recovered. A total of 33 dates, making this site one of the best dated in the entire Arctic, reveal that Nipisat was occupied continuously for nearly 1,500 years. Although protruding bedrock disturbed the stratigraphy and several lenses of crushed shells interrupted the layers, three different chronological phases could be identified. Phase 1 is dated by eight 14C dates ranging from 2020 to 1740 BC (cal). Phase 2 partly overlaps, but is mainly younger than phase 1 and dated by five 14C dates to 1860-1325 BC (cal). Phase 3 is dated by 16 14C dates to 1310-810 BC (cal). One date was very young (520 BC (cal)) and problematic because of extreme oscillations of the 14C curve. From phase 1 there is a mid-passage structure with a box-hearth. A ring of flagstones surrounds the structure. From phase 2 there is a well-defined box-hearth. There was no clear outline of a tent ring surrounding the hearth, which could be due to later disturbances in phase 3. No dwelling structures were recognised from phase 3. Instead several sherds of soapstone were recorded, indicating the use of blubber for light or cooking. From phase 1 and 2 the tool types are well known from other Saqqaq sites in Greenland and Arctic Canada e.g. small harpoon endblades, projectile points, knife blades, scrapers, burins etc. and needles, flint flakers, harpoon heads, wedges etc. But from phase 3 previously unknown types were recorded. A new tool kit for sea mammal hunting is seen in the very sturdy harpoon or lance head made of antler. In addition there are many different kinds of barbed leisters or spears. New types of bevelled harpoon heads, bevelled knife blades and bevelled projectile points, all made of killiaq (silicified slate), were also registered. The faunal assemblage of Nipisat yielded 28,823 identified bone fragments representing at least 42 species of fish, birds and mammals. The fish remains, comprising c. 2% of the faunal material, consisted nearly entirely (98%) of fairly large sized cod (). The bird remains comprise c. 47% of the material and derive from at least 24 bird species. Gulls are the dominant group (c. 54% of the bird remains) followed by eider ducks (spp.) (24%) and spp. (13%) presumably barnacle geese (), while auks () were found in lower frequencies. The most spectacular finds, however, were skeletal remains of subadult great auks () from the oldest phase. A total of 60 presumed whooper swan () remains constitute the hitherto largest, northernmost and oldest occurrence in Greenland. At least 14 mammalian species were identified revealing a surprisingly large proportion of caribou () (51% of the mammal remains) for a coastal site. Seals accounted for 45%, with the common seal () as the absolutely dominant component. Other marine mammals were walrus () and harbour porpoise (), which played an important but minor role. Polar bear () hunting was documented by the presence of four fragments from the youngest phase. Saqqaq people were accompanied by fairly large and robust dogs (). Nipisat, the first larger Saqqaq site to be excavated from the Open Water Area was a coastal site and through all occupation phases the game animals of the surrounding waters and fjords were hunted. For more than a millennium, the site was visited briefly from time to time, at least during spring, summer and early autumn. Staging geese were captured during spring. In June and July the breeding birds were exploited for their eggs and easily accessible young, as documented by large numbers of juvenile gull bones in particular. The common seal hunting specialised on immature individuals caught primarily during their first summer on the breeding grounds. The inhabitants at Nipisat also hunted caribou on the mainland. The age structure and sex distribution of the caribou remains primarily reflect stalking. Selected body parts, especially the fore and hind legs and the heads, were transported to the island for raw material, meat filleting and further processing for marrow extraction and fat rendering. The exploitation of fauna through the entire occupation period was remarkably constant with respect to choice of game animal and the selected age groups. Although eiders were more abundant in phase 1 (36%) than in phase 3 (17%) while gulls increased from 43 to 61% in the same time period. The same trend was found valid for geese, which increased over time while the importance of auks decreased. Harbour porpoise seem to have decreased while walrus increased in relative importance through time. Caribou seem to be of greater importance in phase 3 with 55% compared to 45% in phase 1. The slight shift in preferred resources may be explained by fluctuating abundance and availability of the game species combined with the development of new hunting tools. Based on the new investigations in the Sisimiut District, the gap between Saqqaq and Dorset Culture in Central West Greenland has been diminished. Although resource exploitation at the site seems to have been very stable through all three phases, there are aspects of cultural change bridging the transition from Saqqaq to Dorset Cultures. The introduction of bevelled tools, sturdy harpoon or lance heads and the abandonment of the bow and arrow in phase 3, show cultural affiliation with Dorset technology. This is also true in terms of lithic raw material preference, the introduction of soapstone artefacts and the absence of dwelling structures with a well-defined box-hearth. At the same time it looks like, the central occupation area for the Saqqaq Culture shifted southwards from the Qeqertarsuup Tunua area towards Sisimiut and Nuuk.

Book Hoof Beats

    Book Details:
  • Author : William T. Taylor
  • Publisher : Univ of California Press
  • Release : 2024
  • ISBN : 0520380673
  • Pages : 341 pages

Download or read book Hoof Beats written by William T. Taylor and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new story about domestication of the horse and how horses forever altered the course of human history. Hoof Beats brings together cutting-edge science and archaeological discoveries from around the globe to explore how momentous events in the story of humans and horses helped create the world we live in today. William Taylor, one of the foremost experts on the subject, traces the legacy of the horse from its initial domestication to the invention of horse-drawn transportation, through the explosive shift to mounted riding and dispersal to every corner of the globe. Illustrated with striking images and drawings highlighting horse cultures and archaeological discoveries from across the ancient world, this book fills in massive gaps in the historical record from 'horse country,' including new research in Mongolia and the Great Plains. Taylor synthesizes such revolutionary research to guide readers through the major discoveries that have placed the horse at the origins of significant contemporary issues--globalization, trade, biological exchange, and social inequality. Fascinating and highly original, Hoof Beats transforms our understanding not just of horses, but of how we interpret evidence of humanity's ancient past"